The Effect of Urban Redevelopment Induced Displacement and Resettlement on Social Capital in Ethiopia

Abstract

City transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa by its nature require massive physical space to accommodate urban development. Accordingly, urban redevelopment program is taken place in many old inner-city settlements to increase the supply of land for commercial and residential development. To this end, these practice often lead to displacement of residents from their original location which in turn affects their livelihoods. The trend and situation of urban development program in Ethiopia and Gondar city is no exception. To this end, this paper assess the effects of urban redevelopment induced displacement and resettlement on social capital in Gondar city. To achieve the objective of the research, a questionnaire survey covering 147 displaced households with interview and field observation was carried out. The findings highlight that, though resettlement has positive effects to the people, the displaced households in Gondar city were lost their neighborhood ties and social networks such as Idir, Equb, Mahiber and Senbetie in their new location. In addition, they also endures several adverse impacts on their basic infrastructure facilities. Therefore, government should understand the social capital impacts in both pre and post relocation phases to improve and strength the displaced households social networks and relationships throughout the entire resettlement process.